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Alerts "steal" keystrokes

Being paranoid, I have ZoneAlarm (ZASS 8.0.298) configured to ask my permission before allowing programs to access the trusted zone, access the internet or do something &quot;dangerous&quot;. I get lots of alerts even though I allow the obvious to happen automatically. It's a nuisance, but part of the price I am willing to pay for security.

The problem is that I am typing away in my editor and one of these alerts pops us and steals my type-ahead. Often, the type-ahead contains a letter that &quot;satisfies&quot; the alert and thinks I have approved (or disapproved) and the alert vanishes from the screen before I can even see what it is or how I inadvertently responded.

Is there a way to disable keystrokes in alerts so that I have to use the mouse to point and click in order to reply to an alert?

I apologize if this has already been asked and answered, but I can't find any threads about this.

Re: Alerts "steal" keystrokes

The fact that you can't enter keystrokes is encouraging; it implies that I only need to learn how to turn them off. Does anyone have any ideas how to do that? There certainly don't seem to be options for this kind of thing in the Control Center.

Re: Alerts "steal" keystrokes

I said &quot;Being paranoid, I have ZoneAlarm (ZASS 8.0.298) configured to ask my permission before allowing programs to access the trusted zone, access the internet or do something &quot;dangerous&quot;. I get lots of alerts even though I allow the obvious to happen automatically. It's a nuisance, but part of the price I am willing to pay for security.

The problem is that I am typing away in my editor and one of these alerts pops us and steals my type-ahead. Often, the type-ahead contains a letter that &quot;satisfies&quot; the alert and thinks I have approved (or disapproved) and the alert vanishes from the screen before I can even see what it is or how I inadvertently responded.

Is there a way to disable keystrokes in alerts so that I have to use the mouse to point and click in order to reply to an alert?

I apologize if this has already been asked and answered, but I can't find any threads about this.

Then you said: &quot;Hi!
for me it wan't accept any letter unless I go over with the mouse and push on allow or deny, no space or ENTER or any letter.
Or may be I have been lucky?

Cheer,
Fax&quot;

And then I said: &quot;The fact that you can't enter keystrokes is encouraging; it implies that I only need to learn how to turn them off. Does anyone have any ideas how to do that? There certainly don't seem to be options for this kind of thing in the Control Center.

TIA &quot;

And finally you asked &quot;to turn off what?&quot;

It is really frustrating to be typing away, have my keystrokes disappear and out of the corner of my eye see a Zone Alarm alert fading from the screen. I would very much like to have ZA alerts force me to go to alert window, mouse and click.

Re: Alerts "steal" keystrokes

Hi fax,
Sorry, I don't know how to put it any clearer.
When an alert window comes up, it takes focus.
Then it starts emptying the buffer of any keystrokes. If I am typing in any other window, it takes my keystrokes for the characters in the alert window--generally an A for allow or a D for deny. It doesn't require an Alt key as do most windows applications that allow hotkeys.
The same thing happens with the scan status window. It will accept a D for done when it has focus.
I think these are the keys that usually trigger it; if ZA accepts other hotkeys they would probably trigger it also.

I don't know why it would happen for me but not for you. I'm running Vista Home Premium (my mistake) with all the latest updates, the latest version of Zone Alarm and lots of other programs.

The situation is really intolerable. ZA should at least provide an option to forbid hotkeys. After all, a rogue program could feed the keyboard what it wants, which is why the much maligned UAC in Vista only recognizes mouse actions.

I've been using ZA for years and generally like it very much, but if I can't find a resolution to this problem I think I will evaluate other security suites when my next ZASS renewal is due.

Thanks for looking at my problem; if you have any ideas where I might go from here I would be very grateful to hear them.

Re: Alerts "steal" keystrokes

Yes, I am running 8.0.298. The problem with keystrokes being stolen did not start with 8.0.298. It has been going longer than that. In fact I believe that the problem was going on before the last time I did a complete reset (install without keeping old settings).

Re: Alerts "steal" keystrokes

Hi!if it was a problem I don't know.... I only know that with the latest version I can't materially allow by mistake a pop-up and can't even write... it just will not allow any key unless I go over the pop-up and make the selection, not sure how you can....If everything works correctlyon your hand then report directly to ZA: www.zonealarm.com/tsform Cheers,Fax